A new Internet-based control system developed in Brazil allows greater energy efficiency in public buildings, homes and machinery. The low cost of the apparatus and its software, already proven effective in state and private offices, puts within consumers' reach a system that measures the temperature and light of the space where it is located in order to automatically adjust and regulate the use of electricity.

The savings in just a few months pay for the investment of 28 dollars per unit, said engineer Fábio Gonçalves Jota, coordinator of the project at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

The studies began in 2002 after the previous year's energy crisis in Brazil. The information technology-based system also generates environmental benefits, Jota told Tierramérica, lamenting that some industries are resisting switching to this innovation.